CB Drabbles
by vettac
Summary: My CB drabbles gathered in one place.
1. You Think You've Heard This One Before

All of my old CB drabbles in one place.

* * *

 **Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before**

Spike sucked in a breath and fell backwards to the floor as the wind was knocked out of him by a hard punch that landed right in the center of his abdomen. The throbbing pain blurred his vision and he squinted, looking up at her furious face.

"So, would you like to share any more words of wisdom about life?" Faye stood over him, her chest heaving as her foot tapped incessantly against his chest.

Spike thought it was probably best not to answer that question.


	2. What Difference Does it Make?

He had always known that she'd fallen for him, that she thought it would somehow change her, change her life.

He could feel her love pulling him down, and he had to make her believe that he didn't want to be caught, that he didn't care.

He couldn't do it to her, couldn't let her believe that any hope was possible.

He would always remember her from the times when leaving was furthest from his mind, before the urge to reach for her was so strong that it threatened to kill him alive.


	3. Well I Wonder

From the couch, a figure was just sitting up, becoming aware of her presence. He looked at her, his expression hidden by the darkness.

She didn't need the light to know what expression he chose to hide under the shadow of night.

And because he knew that she loved him, he would look everywhere but in her eyes.

No words were spoken, but he would try to show how much he didn't care, about her, about himself, about anything. He would say with that expression that he didn't need her or anyone.

But she knew him well enough to know that it was a lie, because those were the times when he needed her the most.


	4. Half a Person

_I've got a new life now and I don't even think about you._

He chases away the image of emerald green with fury and blood on his hands.

His eyes are cold and dangerous; he's not the same person she knew. He's only half alive and sinking deeper into darkness.

 _There's a chick who's been itching to get in my pants, and I can get laid anytime I want, so I don't need to think about you._

Restlessness rages through him and he chases the vision away with mindless fucking, empty sex.

But every night, after the fury has died away, the restlessness returns. There is something missing, and he sees no light in the darkness of his life. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot chase away the vision of emerald green.

He is lost without her.


	5. His Ghost

Faye stood in front of the mirror, examining her eyes.

Did they look different, she wondered? She looked closer for any hint of the hurt that she felt inside.

The day he left, these same eyes had cried for him, real tears, plump and wet, rolling down her face like some little girl crying for her mother.

But Faye didn't have a mother, and her home was gone, long gone.

They were all she had.

And now, looking at those same eyes, she remembered the way his had looked, when he'd stuck his face closer to her than it had ever been before, in all the months that they had shared ship space.

Her heart was breaking, and all he could say was that he couldn't see, couldn't see her, couldn't see anything but the past he had before them.

Faye never cried for anyone, but she cried for him.

 _You went away just when I needed you._


	6. Written in Your Eyes

Spike and I are sitting on the couch in front of the vidscreen, watching the communiqué that Ed sent us about a potential bounty. I'm trying to look casual but the truth is, his proximity makes me nervous. We need to work out a plan on the best way to bring down this guy. As usual, Spike wants to go in with guns blazing.

As he talks about his game plan (the only time he every really says more than a sentence), I watch his eyes, how they seem to light up with every aggressive action that he outlines.

"What?"

Startled, my eyes refocus and I find him staring at me. I know that I am blushing because his eyes stray down my face, from my chin and back up to my eyes.

"Nothing." I shake my head and turn back at the vidscreen. I'm praying that he didn't catch the emotion that must have leaked out onto my face.

I glance back at him, and my heart drops like a stone in my chest.

I know that he dislikes me, but I never realized just how much until I look at him. He is eyeing me with such intensity that I can almost feel the hatred burning my skin.

So, he had noticed something. It's more than obvious that he doesn't feel the same way.

I want the floor to open up and swallow me whole so he can't see just how much his look crushes me. Instead, I swallow back the tears.

Now I'm furious.

I stare him down defiantly until he is the one who is forced to look away.


	7. His Face in My Dreams

Faye leaned against the wall of the porthole and pressed her forehead on the glass, staring out into space. The glass was cold on her skin.

The scenario was so achingly familiar; idiot goes out, either for a bounty or just for a night alone, away from the Jet's grumbling or her "whining complaints," as he liked to remind her.

Jet was in the plant room amusing himself with tending his little trees. It was what he always did when Spike went out, because he didn't want her to see how worried he was.

 _All men are idiot_ s, she thought, _so transparent_.

She held no such illusions or pretenses that she was not afraid for him.

She worried because Spike didn't and Jet said he wouldn't.

Spike's face appeared before her, reflected in the glass. For a split second, Faye thought that his ship had crashed, leaving his lifeless body to float through space, heading home to the Bebop.

She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten before she opened them again.

His face was gone.

Instead of feeling relief, her nerves splintered into shredded pieces of frayed ribbons, and she turned away from the window, looking around for something, anything to occupy herself with until he came home.


	8. My Grandma's Sad Eyes

Spike leaned against the side of the Swordfish, under the wing, hands in his pockets and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. He had needed some air, and even though there was a slight breeze, the oppressive heat of the Martian sun was impossible to escape. A strong gust swirled up, blowing smoke into his face. He welcomed the burning in his eyes as the image of Faye washed away along with the tear that rolled down his cheek. He took a hand from his pocket to discard the butt and swiped his face on his jacket sleeve as he pushed himself off from the ship.

After dinner earlier that evening, he had been simply minding his own damned business, watching Big Shots and debating whether a two hundred thousand woolong bounty was going to be worth his time and energy.

For some reason still unknown to him, he had looked up to find Faye's eyes upon him, and for a few minutes neither of them had said a word, simply staring each other down.

Then she had turned and walked away, leaving him to watch her small figure disappear down the hallway to her room.

The crushing pain that hit him was unlike anything he had felt in a long time; it started from deep down in his gut and traveled all the way up his torso, sitting like a ball of lead in his chest. He found it hard to swallow that thick knot in his throat, and for a moment he wondered if Jet had put something in tonight's dinner that had not sat well in his stomach.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out another cigarette to light.

Who was he kidding?

He knew exactly what the problem was, had known for some time now.

It was that woman with the green eyes.


	9. Mind Over Money

His eyes were closed as Faye watched him, his hands clasped across his stomach, a self-absorbed smirk across his face. He looked the picture of peace and contentment. She could have no idea of what was going on inside his head.

In his mind he was recounting all of the near-misses in his life, trying to figure out how many lives he had used up or given away, and how many he had left.

The first one, he figured, was the day he walked into the Red Dragons headquarters, signing away his autonomy and independence.

The second was when he had had allowed himself to be talked into swapping out the eye he was born with for one owned by Mao and the Dragons, pulling him deeper into the dungeon and away from himself.

The third life was wrested away from him during crossfire between the Dragons and a rival syndicate, and that was the first one from which he almost did not make it back. He and Vicious became fast friends from that point on, and enjoyed a long run of camaraderie while moving up the ranks together.

Then a stone dropped like lead to the bottom of a cesspool, when Julia entered the scene. Despite warnings from Vicious and Mao, he gave away another life by falling in love with her.

When finally he had to rid himself from the oppressive life that the Dragons had become, he faked his death to escape, nearly losing his life in the process. The rest were easy to figure out: mad Pierrot, Vincent, the destruction of Vicious and the Red Dragons.

Now another woman, whose existence in his time and space threatened to sluice out another life.

He cracked open an eye and made himself look at Faye's still figure, fast asleep, mouth ajar as soft snores emanated from her pretty little mouth.

He closed his eyes. Yeah, he guessed he could hold on to this last life for awhile.


	10. Seeds of Night

Faye had grown tired of waiting for Spike and decided to venture off on her own. She wandered along the avenue, stopping to glance up at a high-rise building displaying the weather report. She wondered briefly whether an umbrella could offer protection against meteor showers the way that her pink umbrella with the Dalmatians used to when she was a child …

 _"Today's forecast: 80% chance of clouds today."_

Faye skipped merrily along the sidewalk, her pink umbrella over her head as she jumped into every puddle that she came upon. Daddy had bought it for her as a present when he returned from his last business trip. When she opened the big box, she had pulled out the pink umbrella that had oodles of her favorite kind of dog, along with her favorite movie, 101 Dalmatians. She had begged Daddy to buy her a Dalmatian of her own, but he had told her no, because when she had grown tired of the dog and the responsibility that came with caring for it, the task would fall to the servants. Faye had sulked for weeks until a new obsession had taken her interest away from a Dalmatian.

 _"Today's forecast: 80% chance of meteor showers today."_

Faye heard the patter of small stones hitting the ground behind her, and she ducked under the awning of a building, waiting until the wave had passed. Once the showers had passed, she ventured out to continue her walk.

She saw Spike heading towards her from the opposite direction. Judging by the sour look on his face, she must have been gone longer than she thought. She put her hand up to her ear and realized that she had also forgotten to turn on her earpiece.

She stopped and waited for him to reach her.

"Where were you?" He towered over her imposingly.

Faye gave him an arrogant look of her own.

"You took too long."


	11. Crash and Burn

He was a creature of habit, chasing down death like a hobby, his return another near miss as he waited for the final blow with something like disappointment.

Yet there was something in his eyes that looked like relief to her.

He stared coldly into her face, daring her to speak, to confront him. She refused to look away.

"You're back," she said reproachfully as she broke the silence .

"Yeah, it looks like it."

If he wasn't afraid of dying, then what was he afraid of? Because he did feel fear, that she could see behind the stony façade.

She dropped her eyes and stared through the port window. He didn't care that every time he left she wondered if it would be the last time she saw his face. He saw only what he wanted to see and closed his eyes to the rest. His past had cost him his soul, his future, his dreams, left him with empty gestures as he waited for the game to be over.


	12. Dreamworld

Faye stabbed the knife through the steak and cut it in half. _I really need to get some help for this gambling thing._ She had lost the bet with Spike and now had to share the steak that she had bought for herself with her share of the bounty.

The bounty head was a small fry and payout was even smaller, and she had a taste for a nice juicy Venusian steak. Spike bought smokes with his share, but kept eying the package with _her_ steak. Somehow he convinced her to wager, and in a moment of stupidity, she actually fell for it. And lost, which led to a heated argument between the two of them. Jet, in a fit of pique, announced that he was taking a break from cooking and providing groceries for the lazy crew, and they were on their own.

She looked down at the steak, trying to decide which piece was better. _Eenie meenie miny moe_... she chose one side and slapped it down on Spike's plate. She looked around her to see if he was nearby, then sneaked a sliver from his share and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Is that my piece?" Spike came into the room and looked down at the two plates.

Faye chewed furiously and nodded her head.

"Are you eating already?"

Faye swallowed hard before answering. "Of course not," she protested. "Didn't we agree that you would measure them?"

Spike came closer and peered at the two halves. "I could have sworn that that steak was bigger," he mumbled.

Faye scoffed. "If you knew anything, you would know that meat shrinks after it's cooked." She turned to him. "Do you even know how to cook?"

Spike grinned. "Have you ever seen me in the kitchen?"

She tossed her head. "My point exactly." She slid his plate towards him. "There's yours. We're even now." She picked up her plate and walked into the common room. She resisted the urge to turn around. She flopped down on the couch and dug in.

"Faye?"

She looked up. Spike was walking towards her with a scowl on his face. "What's this black stuff on the bottom of my steak?"

She smiled sweetly. "Oh. Didn't you say well done?"

"Well done, not burned." He stamped over to her and peered down at her plate. "Wait, let me see what your piece-"

Faye sank her fork into the last piece and popped it in her mouth. "What piece?"


End file.
